I know many of you have been watching the series The Chosen, the series about the life of Jesus. It has captured a loyal audience who are invested in the show.
The viewers have indicated that they want to see the biblical story of Jesus retold on the screen in ways that emphasize not only his humanity but also his divinity which the series does very well.
Dallas Jenkins, the show’s creator, director and writer, mentioned in a YouTube interview that he was not planning to portray the transfiguration. Jenkins is not an issue about the transfiguration itself, but he feels that depicting it visually would not add to the visual nor faith goals he has for the series. He feels including the transfiguration would bring a science fiction feel to that scene in the show.
Many of the show’s fans are upset and are pushing for the inclusion of the transfiguration scene. They believe it’s important because God confirms Jesus’ divinity by saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen one; listen to him!”
However, as we continue reading the scripture it is unclear if Peter, James and John were changed by witnessing the transfiguration For example, after the transfiguration, Mark tells us James and John ask Jesus to be seated on his right and left when he comes into his glory, which indicates they don’t understood the intent of Jesus’ ministry. Also, it is after the transfiguration that Peter denies Jesus three times.
Peter proposes they set up three tents — one each for Elijah, Moses and Jesus — staying on the mountaintop which reveals Peter’s wish to stop time and live in the radiance of that moment. I don’t know about you but I have had spiritual experiences that I didn’t want to end. I wanted to stay there in that moment with God. But that’s not what being a follower of Jesus is about. Discipleship means continuing on and doing the tasks Jesus lays out for us.
What if the transfiguration was not intended for the disciples, but for Jesus himself. Luke tells us that Moses and Elijah talked to Jesus during this radiant experience, though we don’t know what they said. They may have been preparing Jesus for the suffering and death he was soon to face in Jerusalem. And God’s voice — the same voice Jesus had heard at his baptism — confirmed for him that he was indeed God’s Son, with all the glory, pain and responsibility of that relationship. Luke says Jesus “set his face to go to Jerusalem” following this encounter, indicating the transfiguration clearly had its intended effect on him.
Nonetheless, when God spoke on that mountain top, his words were addressed to both Jesus and the disciples. When he said, “This is my Son, my chosen one,” that confirmed for Jesus his divine identity. But God’s addition of “listen to him!” was an obvious direction for the disciples. We we read the word “listen” in the Bible, it implies both trust and obedience.
When we say we are listening to Jesus, we usually don’t mean we are literally hearing an audible voice. Sometimes we are experiencing discontent that we come to understand is a call from Jesus to follow him in some new direction. Or we might mean we have received an inner assurance or comfort from Christ, or we have witnessed an occurrence that seems to be an answer to prayer.
It’s also possible that some have had an encounter with Jesus that seems so otherworldly that they don’t go around talking about it for fear that others would think you are crazy. But just because others think that doesn’t mean you are wrong.
Over the centuries since the time of Jesus many people have claimed to have had visions of Jesus and heard him speak in an audible voice. The Roman Catholic Church even has established a procedure for evaluating such claims. It has endorsed only a fraction of them, but it doesn’t rule them all out.
If listening to Jesus means something other than hearing a voice we can perceive with our ears, how do we do that? We could start by reviewing the things Jesus said in the gospels — which is not difficult. You can find the New Testament online or there are Bibles with the words of Jesus printed in red.
But beyond that, listening to Jesus today means seeking to apply what we know about Jesus to the circumstances of our lives and our relationships with other people. If we’ve had some kind of mountaintop experience with Christ, it is what we do because of that experience that gives it reality and qualifies it as listening to God’s Son. Or, as commentator R. Alan Culpepper puts it, “Faithfulness is not achieved by freezing a moment but by following on in confidence that God is leading and that what lies ahead is even greater than what we have already experienced.”
We shouldn’t get hung up on whether we’re hearing from God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit. As theologian Frederick Buechner says “Father, Son and Holy Spirit mean that the mystery beyond us, the mystery among us, and the mystery within us are all the same mystery.”
We can listen to the triune God through the reading of Scripture, praying and even by paying attention to our thoughts and our consciences. God speaks to us in many different ways. Sometimes even through the circumstances of our lives. I had a period of time where it was through email of all things. C.S. Lewis famously wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
An Old Testament passage helps us understand that God is a partner in the listening process. The prophet Isaiah credits God with providing the ability to listen. As Isaiah phrases it, “Morning by morning [God] wakens — wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear …” The English translation says, “opened my ear,” but the force of the original Hebrew word there is more like, “The Lord God has caused sound to flow to my ear.”
So, for hearing what Jesus has to say to us today, our prayer can be “Open my ears, O Lord,” and then do our best to pay attention.
Sources
Homiletics Online, “Listening to Jesus”, March-April, 2025 Addition
Buechner, Frederick. Wishful Thinking (Harper & Row, 1973), p. 93.
Frew, Cameron. “The Chosen fans are worried we won’t see Jesus’ transfiguration.” Dexerto, February 22, 2024, www.dexerto.com/tv-movies/the-chosen-fans-want-jesus-transfiguration-2546424/. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
“Interview with Dallas Jenkins – creator and director of The Chosen.” YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsPaPW2xli8&t=2285s. Retrieved September 1, 2024 (Jenkins’ comments about the transfiguration start at about minute 37).
The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol IX, p. 207.
“Reflections: God’s Megaphone.” C.S. Lewis Institute, October 1, 2021, www.cslewisinstitute.org/resources/reflections-october-2021/. Retrieved September 3, 2024.
Ukhtomsky, Andrew. “Why Did Only Three Disciples See the Transfiguration of Christ?” The Catalogue of Good Deeds, https://catalog.obitel-minsk.com/blog/2020/08/why-did-only-three-disciples-see-the-transfiguration-of-christ. Retrieved September 2, 2024.“Visions of Jesus and Mary.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visions_of_Jesus_and_Mary. Retrieved September 2, 2024.